Why the U.S. base at Cuba’s Guantanamo Bay is probably doomed

By Nick Miroff (Washington Post, May 15, 2015)

In this article, Miroff lays out the evidence for why it is only a matter of time before the U.S. must relinquish its oldest overseas navy base. He calls Guantanamo a “global geopolitical anomaly,” as the only place in the world where the U.S. military forcefully occupies foreign land on an open-ended basis, against the wishes of its host nation.

The Guantanamo Base, A U.S. Colonial Relic Impeding Peace with Cuba

By Timothy Keen and Paul Gioia (Council on Hemispheric Affairs, February 12, 2015)

The Obama administration claims that “the issue of Guantanamo is not on the table,” but Keen and Gioia opine that full diplomatic rapprochement is impeded by the continued U.S. occupation of the military base. They explain why the base symbolizes a broader struggle between the remnants of the days when Cuba’s neocolonial government was entirely submissive to Washington, and a post-revolutionary Castro government that refuses to accept U.S. occupation. They also offer legal arguments about why the U.S.’s agreement with Cuba regarding the territory is invalid.

Raúl Castro demands that US return Guantánamo base to Cuba

By Associated Press (The Guardian, January 28, 2015)

Cuba’s President Raúl Castro has demanded that the United States return the U.S. base at Guantánamo Bay, lift the half-century trade embargo on Cuba, and compensate his country for damages before the two nations re-establish normal relations. For its part, the Obama administration says removing barriers to U.S. travel, remittances, and exports to Cuba is a tactical change that supports the unaltered goal of reforming Cuba’s single-party political system and centrally planned economy.

The Guantánamo Bay Naval Base: The United States and Cuba—Dealing with A Historic Anomaly

By Michael Parmly (The Fletcher Forum of World Affairs, September 2013)

The aim of this paper is to explore whether and how U.S. interests can be reconciled with Cuban operational sovereignty and overall control of the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base. The author maintains that the heart of the Guantanamo issue revolves not around how the U.S. treats its detainees, but why the government feels it can behave exactly as it wishes, on soil that has repeatedly—by legislative as well as judicial branches of the United States—been affirmed as Cuban territory.

Give Guantánamo Back to Cuba

By Jonathan M. Hansen (New York Times, January 10, 2012)

In this opinion piece, Hansen claims that the debate over whether to close the Guantánamo detention camp — or make it permanent — has obscured a deeper failure that dates back more than a century and implicates all Americans: namely, our continued occupation of Guantánamo itself. He outlines the base’s history and states that it is past time to return “this imperialist enclave” to Cuba.